In front of me is a 1980’s era battered cop car. A Crown Victoria, if I’m remembering correctly. White with black accent panels. The kind you might find on a parts auction. A rusty metal grate running alongside the rear passenger panel. A second similar car, but law enforcement navy, sits next to it. It, too, has a rusty grate attached, but it runs along the grill instead of the side. To my right is a wide open driving track in the Wisconsin countryside. I look up to a gorgeous Wisconsin August sky and wonder what I’m doing here.
Two officers appear to make sure everyone gathered by the cars are in the right place. “Everyone here for PIT class?” We look at each other but say nothing. “Pursuit Immobilization Technique?” No objections are raised. Heads nod. The class is divided and I’m in the front passenger seat of the navy car.
“I can’t believe they’re going to let us do this,” I say.
The cop grins at me. “I can’t believe I get paid to do this. Let’s go have some fun.”
Christie and I attended the 10th annual Writer’s Police Academy in Green Bay, Wisconsin earlier this month. I first learned about this conference at a dinner table at Sleuthfest. Hank Phillippi Ryan and Hallie Ephron suggested we look into it. We did. (And that’s how one conference begets another.)
Over the course of two and a half days, attendees have the opportunity to attend HIT (High Intensity Training) classes and classroom sessions at the Police Academy at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. Every session I attended was fantastic. Here’s a sampling of what I took:
The Art of Interrogation
Pursuit Immobilization Technique
Force on Force
Martial Art Maneuvers
PTSD
Building Your Character
Car Fire
Going Deep: An Undercover Session
For every class I took, there were four more I was sad to miss. The teachers were of the highest caliber (ATF agents, LAPD interrogation specialists, psychologists, secret service), enthusiastic, and supportive of attendees’ writing projects. Attendees were from all over the world and varied from newbies like myself to veterans like Jeffrey Deaver and Sherry Harris. (Here they are talking at one of our surprise presentations).
At the Saturday evening gathering, Jeffrey Deaver revealed his process for each novel. It takes him around 8 months to produce an outline and 2 months to write around 130,000 words. He then performs 50 edits before his novel is done.
Nothing but inspiring. And fun. Turns out that I’m kind of a bad ass who can to stop a fleeing suspect with a PIT maneuver. Me, and all the other writers in the class.
I still can’t believe they let us do what we did.
Comments are closed.